Stories from the Rainbow Warrior: Crizel

I don’t think I’ve ever felt actually honored to write a blog, but today I am. Watching the video below, I’ve been quite overwhelmed by the urgency of so many environmental issues – issues that not only slowly destroy our planet, but put young innocent lives at risk.

We’re opening more and more regional offices in developing countries – the latest, Greenpeace Africa, works in South Africa and the Democratic Republic of the Congo – where the attitude of western countries and companies seems to be “out of sight, out of mind”. We need to eradicate this attitude, and we need your help to do this.

I hope that one day, stories of toxic pollution will only belong in history books – and that Crizel’s story won’t be forgotten.

I often wonder what happened in Okinawa. After the chemicals were taken to Johnston Island to be destroyed, the remnants and stuff that had leaked was...

I often wonder what happened in Okinawa. After the chemicals were taken to Johnston Island to be destroyed, the remnants and stuff that had leaked was just hosed down, and it was right next to the irrigation channels that fed the pineapple plantations.
I was there for 2 years and saw the lorries taking the stuff to the docks, driving through Koza city. A friend of mine was on the detail in the Army that had to clean up and accompany the stuff to Johnston Island. He said that even at the time the guys questioned among themselves the dumping of the stuff with no pproper cleanup. But it was secret, and secret things had no paperwork. The guy in question is still alive but has suffered all his life with health problems. If they don't even protect their own people, is it any wonder they don't give a good god damn about the rest of us. Look at them using the banned in UK COREXIT for the Gulf cleanup, In UK it's banned as it harms all living things, including us.

In early 2000 I was aboard the MV Greenpeace in Fremantle, Australia. We had just abandoned an Antarctic whaling campaign before we'd started, after having ice punch a hole in the hull. The weather had been miserable the whole way - one of those tours where just putting on your pants in the morning was a risky challenge. We were facing weeks of repairs and I was frustrated and depressed.

Then, Amsterdam told me that they wanted to transfer me to the Rainbow Warrior for a Southeast Asia tour. I thought that it was going to be an action-poor, public relations campaign and begged them to just send me home instead. Boy, was I wrong.

I joined just before the Rainbow Warrior left India. The Indian Ocean transit was nice and Thailand is lovely but, as I expected, we didn't do a lot of radical planet-saving. Then, we sailed to the Philippines and everything changed.

During my 5 years sailing with Greenpeace, I traveled to 40 countries or so. Around the world I met incredible people like you, all committed to our small planet and to sticking it to the corporations and governments that are working so hard to wreck it. Even among these gems, the activists of the Philippines shine brighter. I was blown away by the competence, dedication, humor, hospitality and sheer enthusiasm of the Philippines Greenpeace crew. Just being in their presence made me feel like a young revolutionary again.

Then, I met Crizel Jane Valencia. I'm attaching an essay I wrote about her, one of her drawings and a couple of photographs, if you care to look at them. That's her steering the inflatable with Captain Pete Wilcox's assistance and me holding her in my lap. I don't think that I could re-tell what happened and how it affected me any better now. Even today, 10 years later, she and the rest of the Filipinos inspire me to just work harder and more joyously when my spirits flag.

Before the Rainbow Warrior left the Philippines, we "returned" some toxic waste to the U.S. Embassy inside a shipping container dropped at their gate. This remains my only U.S. Embassy action and one of the coolest and most important of my scores of lifetime arrests.

I didn't remember or even know that our 2000 tour was the beginning of GP SE Asia. The Filipino crew was so amazingly good at what they do that I never would have guessed. I am so proud to have made my tiny contribution to the launching of 10 years of successes.

Best wishes for another 10 years to GP SE Asia, smooth seas to the Rainbow Warrior crew, and my sincere hopes for radical, dramatic, successful actions and campaigns to both. I'll try to measure up to the example that you set.

This story is just too sad for words, the wrongs just too terrible to forget, the waste just too great to accept, the carelessness just too cruel to b...

This story is just too sad for words, the wrongs just too terrible to forget, the waste just too great to accept, the carelessness just too cruel to believe, the callousness just too inhumane to understand and the legacy just too awful to contemplate. Shame, shame shame!!!!!